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French Cookery (Quart of new milk sufficiently)
a quart of new milk sufficiently sweetened with white sugar, add six macaroons powdered finely, and a gill of orange flower water. Place this mixture upon the fire, and as it gets thick stir it well, and pour it over the apples. Bake it in a gentle oven for half an hour.
A baked apple custard in the French manner: a sweetened milk mixture thickened with powdered macaroons and perfumed with orange flower water, poured over cooked apples and set in a slow oven.
- A gillHalf a cup, four fluid ounces. That is a large quantity by modern standards; today's orange flower waters vary in strength and are often more concentrated, so start with a teaspoon or two and taste.
- "A gentle oven"A slow oven, conventionally reckoned at about 300-325F. Gentle heat is the point: too hot and the mixture is liable to curdle and weep liquid into the dish.
- New milkMilk fresh from the cow, unskimmed and unhomogenised. Whole milk works; whole milk with a splash of cream is closer to the original richness.
- MacaroonsAlmond macaroons, the crisp meringue-and-ground-almond kind, not coconut macaroons and not French macarons. Six of them, crushed to powder, both sweeten and thicken; dry, brittle Italian amaretti are the nearest supermarket equivalent.
- Thickening on the stoveKeep the milk well below a simmer and stir continuously; take it off the heat as soon as it thickens enough to coat the spoon.
- The applesA firm cooking apple, stewed or baked to softness and drained well before the custard goes over it. Wet apples will thin the custard and stop it setting.
- A water bathNot specified here but worth doing. Standing the dish in a roasting tin of hot water gives the even, gentle heat the instruction "gentle oven" is asking for.
- Testing and yieldHalf an hour suits a shallow dish; a deep one may need closer to 45 minutes. It is done when the centre still trembles slightly. A quart of milk with apples serves six to eight.